Annihilation of Caste - Revolution and Counter Revolution

Ram Puniyani

Dalit activist and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of parliament in the Lok Sabha, Udit Raj, in his recent article in the Indian Express titled"‘Where is The Indian Lincoln" highlights some pertinent questions and brings forth the issue of the caste related atrocities. But he goes on to hide things which are more crucial to the process of caste annihilation.

He is on the dot when he says that atrocities against Dalits are due to a mindset which regards them inferior. While this explains how such acts have been taking place earlier as well as now, he undermines the fact that this mindset is due to a political ideology which upholds the caste system in a subtle way.

What he hides is the fact that such atrocities have gone up during past two years. What he does not state is that the Jhajjar violence in Haryana was legitimised by late Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Acharya Giriraj Kishore, who belonged to Udit Raj’s political family called Sangh Parivar. 

It is true that many countries in Europe could do away with birth based hierarchy of class and gender due to industrial revolution ushering in a journey towards substantive democracy. 

India could not achieve such a desirable goal due to the objective restraints imposed by the colonial rule. The industrial revolutions of the West did away with the feudal classes along with their feudal mindset which was justifying the birth-based hierarchies.

In India due to the colonial rule, we have seen the birth of modern institutions along with the foundation of modern society. The foundation and the growth of Indian nationalism did aspire for the formal equality of all irrespective of caste, religion and gender.

Colonial masters in India were least interested in doing away with feudal powers. ‘Feudal-Clergy’ nexus persisted and gave rise to nationalism in the name of religion. Both Muslim nationalism and Hindu nationalism thrived.

The pace of change in colonies is not comparable to the other places where the industrial class along with workers and women combine overthrows the social and political alliance of the feudal-clergy combine.

So in colonies the process of secularization remains arrested and in post colonial societies the feudal mindset persists with the patronage of the certain sections of society.

In these societies the meaning of the word revolution has to be restricted to social transformation. The day to day efforts for social transformation are the revolutionary steps in that sense. India had its own trajectory.

Starting with Jotirao Phule, the Dalits started a slow and long journey towards equality. The journey for women’s equality begins with Savitribai Phule. These streams are totally opposed by the conservative religious elements. These conservatives later crystallize themselves as Muslim League on one side and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS on the other.

The march of Indian nationalism accommodates Ambedkar in some form. While he struggles for social democracy through means of temple entry (Kalaram Mandir), access to public spaces (Chavdar Talao), he goes on to support the burning of Manusmriti and states his resolve for the social equality. We can’t be mechanistic in understanding revolution in diverse societies.

These steps like those of Jotirao, Saviritibai and Ambedkar, Periyar are revolutionary. These are hesitantly supported by Indian nationalism and totally opposed by Hindu nationalism.

Gandhi, a symbol of Indian nationalism, did his best to oppose untouchability, while his stand on reserved constituency can be questioned. Nehru, the architect of modern India, later oversees Ambedkar formulate a Constitution which not only gives formal equality to all but also affirmative reservations to the Dalits.

Nehru’s attempt to bring in reforms like the Hindu Code bill are sabotaged by conservatives within his party and conservatives and Hindu nationalists outside his party.

The persistence of subordination of Dalits is mainly due to the persistence of mindset of Hindu nationalism, which even had opposed the Indian Constitution when it was being formed. 

The Hindu nationalists have been strong opponents of reservations all through; this is what led to anti Dalit riots in Ahmedabad in 1981 and the anti OBC violence again in Ahmedabad in 1986.

The Hindu nationalist BJP intensified its Ram Temple movement in the wake of Mandal Commission implementation.

Udit Raj is right that those perpetrating crimes have not been punished, but that again is due to the prevalent mindset, which has its roots in Hindutva ideology, which spills beyond the parties and organisations working for a Hindu Rashtra (nation) directly.

While longing for revolution is good, ignoring the revolutionary changes at slow speed is disastrous and the likes of Udit Raj sitting in the lap of the BJP, which has been the vehicle of counter revolution as far as social changes are concerned, is a big setback to the process of social change. 

Since BJP is the political arm of RSS, which aspires for a Hindu nation, Hindutva via Hindu nationalism, Udit Raj is contributing precisely to the processes which are hampering the transition of caste equations towards those of equality.

If he wakes up to realise as to how mindsets are formed, he will realise that among other things his party has been transforming national institutions towards the values which will promote an anti-Dalit mindset.

Just one example from many such incidents is the one where the BJP has appointed one Sudarshan Rao as head of Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR). Rao argues that the caste system had no problems and nobody had complaints against that. 

RSS, BJP’s ideological patron, goes on to say that all castes were equal and problems came in due to the invasion of Muslim kings!

All this is putting the wool in the eyes of society to perpetuate the ideology which is inherently castiest and leads to the strengthening of mindset which looks down upon Dalits. 

So a Rohith Vemula or a Una violence happens.

If Indian Nationalist movement was a mini revolution, the present politics being unfolded by Hindu nationalism is a counter revolution, duly supported by the likes of Udit Raj. 

And lastly, if one concedes that there has been no Lincoln in India, one can also look forward to the post Rohith Vemula-Una upsurge of youth, Dalits and non-Dalits, which is going in the direction of caste annihilation!

Read More

Fascism and the BJP

Subhendu Sarkar

It becomes obligatory, at times, to cite an old cliché. The present socio-political scenario in India compels one to remember that history repeats itself and in doing so serves the role of a teacher― it throws a welcome light on the contemporary events and helps negotiate and overcome an otherwise baffling crisis. Indeed, quite a few recent events in India do appear in an altogether new perspective when seen in the context of one of the darkest episodes of modern world history― Hitler’s rule in Germany. It is true, of course, that the BJP-led central government has to work within the framework of a democratic set-up and, therefore, the conditions in India and Nazi Germany cannot be identical. But there are certainly signs that are strikingly similar.

Nazism (or for that matter, fascism) resorted to a dual mechanism to consolidate itself. The repressive regime propagated lies and exerted brute force by an invidious exploitation of the state machinery, besides letting loose its rank-and-file cadres (under various organizations like SA, SS, etc.) on its political opponents. To make things clear and simple, I shall limit myself to refer to only one event that bears obvious resemblance to the present picture― the Reichstagfire (27 February 1933) and its direful consequences. The attack on the parliament building in Berlin was regarded by the Nazis as an act of incendiarism and communists were held responsible for plotting to revolt against the German government. This event was used as a pretext to strengthen Hitler’s power before the elections in March. He passed an emergency decree to suspend civil liberties (which were never reinstated during Nazi reign) and ordered mass arrests of communists, social democrats and other progressives. Nazi newspapers helped his cause by propagating the ‘news’ of insurrection and moulded public opinion which eventually isolated the communists from the masses. Five communists (including Georgi Dimitrov, a member of the Bulgarian Communist Party and head of all Comintern operations in western Europe) were arrested in connection with the Reichstag fire and were tried in the Supreme Court at Leipzig. At the end of the trial, however, only one (Marinus van der Lubbe, a half-wit and formerly a Dutch communist) was found guilty and beheaded by guillotine. The 2 rest were acquitted and sent to the then USSR (after a sustained effort of the anti-fascist forces of the world) where they were greeted as Soviet citizens with immense enthusiasm.

The communists had always believed that van der Lubbe was a part of the Nazi conspiracy ― a poor Faustus who stood before the court but the Mephistophilis behind him had disappeared. The proceedings of the trial can be regarded as a battleground of ideologies where Dimitrov had to defend himself (the Court rejected all the eight defence counsels of his choice) at all odds in a trial which was far from being fair. Dimitrov, in spite of being kept manacled in a prison known for torture, took the opportunity to expose the witnesses (including Goering and Goebbels) and the prosecutor and gave an impassioned call for a united front of all progressive forces against fascism.

However, since 1967 onwards the 1933 verdict has been overturned by several courts in Germany and van der Lubbe has been posthumously acquitted by the reason of insanity and under the general law passed in 1998 which states that whoever convicted under the Nazis is officially not guilty because the laws of Nazi Germany flouted the basic concept of justice. But all said and done the Nazis were successful at least for the moment― they had staged a drama and managed to justify their action to come down heavily on the political opponents by effective propaganda. It was an orchestrated effort to silence the voice of dissent in which agencies, both public and private took equal and active part.

Keeping in mind the Leipzig trial let us now turn, one after another, to three recent incidents that attracted much attention here in India.

Dadri Lynching

Mohammad Akhlaq

On 28 September 2015 two young men, using the local temple's public announcement system in Dadri, a small town in Uttar Pradesh, announced that the family of Mohammad Akhlaq had killed a cow and consumed beef on the occasion of Eid. This was the immediate cause why a violent Hindu mob broke into Akhlaq’s house in the middle of that night, dragged all the members of that family (including women, young and old) out into the open and assaulted 3 them. The police arrived an hour after Akhlaq had died on the spot and Danish, his son, critically injured. The family had been living in Dadri for almost seventy years but the neighbours did not even think twice before launching a brutal attack. The amicable feeling towards a neighbor was relegated to the background as the ugly head of communal hatred raised its head. The event aroused national attention and caused enormous debate. Soon it gained political overtones too when a man, the son of a local BJP leader, was arrested in connection to the case. Not only that, it was also confirmed later by the forensic experts that the meat found in the refrigerator in Akhlaq’s house was not beef but mutton. Dadri incident came to be seen as one of the many recent examples of the BJP-backed heinous design to use rumour to gain political advantage by dividing the nation along communal lines. It is part of their agenda that the Muslims (and other religious minority communities) will have to accept the diktat of the Hindutva brigade to stay in India. This goes against one of the cardinal points of the Indian ConsCtuCon ― secularism.

Rohith Vemula’s Suicide

Rohith Vemula, a Ph.D student at the central University of Hyderabad and a member of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA), had to bear the brunt for participating in a demonstration against the death penalty for Yakub Memon (a convict in 1993 Bombay bombings) on 3 August 2015 at the campus. Following the complaint made by the students’ wing of the RSS, ABVP, to the Vice Chancellor, P. Appa Rao, that the students of the ASA were involved in “casteist” and “anti-national” activities, Rohith and four others were suspended and barred from their hostel. As a consequence of severe financial crisis Rohith (as his scholarship was also cancelled) committed suicide on 17 January 2016. The ABVP leader, Nandanam Susheel Kumar, who had taken an active role against ASA and who claimed that he was admitted to a hospital after he was roughed up by around 40 ASA members was later found to have been operated for an acute appendicitis. Besides, the role of the BJP MP from Secunderabad and the Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and the Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani behind the suspension of the students also came to light.

Rohit Vemula

26-year-old Rohith’s suicide sparked protests and outrage across India and gained widespread media attention as yet another case of discrimination against Dalits and low castes in India in the BJP regime. It was apprehended that the BJP was not only against the Muslims (and Christians) but also against the Dalits who fall under the general category of the Hindu community. But why is it so? One must understand that the right-wing political philosophy of the RSS-BJP strongly resembles Brahminism which gained and held supremacy only by oppressing the so-called lower castes of the Hindu population in a feudal set-up. In fact, intercaste tensions within the Hindu society were often the results of an unconscious class conflict that went on for ages. Therefore, the attempt to present a homogenized Hindu society is to ignore the dynamics of a society ruled by a powerful few. It was against such an unjust system that Bhimrao Ambedkar (and other activists both before and after him) had waged a life-long struggle. Ambedkar thought that the Hindu society was a conglomeration of castes without any binding ideological force. No wonder then that the RSS and the BJP would run an orchestrated campaign based on lies against the Ambedkarites like Rohith.

Kanhaiya and the JNU Raucous

Kanhaiya Kumar, the 29-year old President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union and a leader of the All India Students Federation (AISF), the student wing of the Communist Party of India (CPI), was arrested on the charge of sedition by the Delhi police on 12 February for raising anti-India slogans in a rally to protest the hanging of Mohammed Afzal Guru convicted for the Indian Parliament attack in 2001. The arrest was made following the complaints lodged by the National Secretary of the BJP and an MP, Maheish Girri and members of the ABVP. A nationwide hysteria was created when the BJP started branding a section of the JNU (that included both teachers and students) apologists for the independence of Kashmir (hence anti-Indians). Audio-visual clippings of the event were also played on television channels as clinching evidence for Kanhaiya and others’ anti-national ideologies. Emotions ran high as the nation was caught in a debate between the ‘nationalists’ and their opponents (who were singled out either as Muslims or communists). Demands for closing down the JNU were also raised citing it as a hotbed of sedition run on the taxpayers’ money. Kanhaiya was even beaten 5 up by some lawyers (read the BJP cadres) inside the courtroom where he was brought for trial. On 2 March 2016, however, he was granted interim bail for 6 months by the Delhi High Court on a 10,000 rupee bail bond and an undertaking that he would not "participate in any antinational activity” (though the judge had said that there were no recordings of Kumar raising anti-national slogans). Interestingly, out of the seven videos of the event sent to forensic laboratory, three crucial ones were found to be doctored including a clipping of a news channel.

This incident, in fact, has brought into focus many issues at the same time: chauvinism, suppression of dissenting voices, organized propaganda (where a section of the media joined hands with the ruling party) based on false and/or doctored reports, etc. Best efforts to commence an academic debate surrounding the topics of either nationalism in its totality or Kashmir issue and the hodgepodge trial of Afzal Guru got drowned in a momentary frenzy of blind nationalism. Of course, the BJP was behind all this. It wanted only to broaden its political base by staging this drama. And many apparently innocent Indians could not keep their cool and judge things properly.

Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar, MM Kalburgi

These three incidents manifest an important characteristic of the RSS-BJP: their attitude towards the religious minorities, the Dalits and the Leftists. Add to this their treatment of the rationalists like Govind Pansare, Malleshappa Kalburgi and Narendra Dhabholkar or doctors like Saibal Jana. Depending on the state machinery and a fanatical band of cadres the Sangh brigade has launched a war on those who resist their right-wing campaign. What is equally important is their simultaneous attempt to use rumour and propaganda to mould public opinion in their favour. But it does not become a matter of discomfiture for them when a particular venture receives a jolt on account of its falsity. In fact, they will continue to make the most of the situation in order to broaden their political base among the middle-class population. And it will not be much difficult particularly when the mood of desperation is acute among the so-called educated Indians and the opposition (both ideological and political) is somewhat disarrayed.

What needs to be reiterated at the end is that this undemocratic contingent has a conscious plan to turn India into a monolithic structure decimating the diverse elements that make it so unique in the whole world. There are plenty of signs that suggest Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy or Spain may not always remain matters of distant past. And it will indeed be a living reality soon unless we stand guard and fight a relentless baOle raising the determined slogan ― “Fascism shall not pass”.

This article that was first published in Frontier [14 May, 2016, Vol 48, No. 44]

Read More

Worshipping Gods in the times of Elections

Ram Puniyani

Arun Shourie, who was part of NDA, a fellow traveler and an ideologue of BJP wrote several books, many of them against minorities and dalits in particular. One of these which was strongly protested against by large sections of people, dalits in particular, was his “Worshipping False Gods”. In this book he expressed the mind set of RSS-BJP politics towards Ambedkar. In this long bulky volume he was heavily critical of Ambedkar’s ideology, his agitations for democratic values and his struggles for social justice. Now a decade and half later on one side many a dalit leaders, Ramvilas Paswan, Udit Raj, Ramdas Athwaley are vying to sit in the lap of the politics of BJP for apparently their own  personal gains on one side and on the other the BJP’s Prime Ministerial Candidate Narendra Modi is going miles to woo the sections of dalits. It is another matter that while doing this in his usual trade mark style he has no qualms about misrepresenting the events, speaking lies and putting the blame of all that has not taken place to his political adversaries.

This 14^th April (2014), on the occasion of Ambedkar Anniversary, one saw the Prime Ministerial aspirant wearing the blue jacket and offering flowers to the architect of India’s Constitution. He bowed in front of the portrait of Babasaheb and said that it is due to Babasaheb that people like him have come up in the society. Lets note that Modi despite belonging to RSS combine, which does not project the caste as such, is projecting his caste prominently in UP and Bihar. RSS is opposed to disturbing the prevalent status quo of caste hierarchy. Modi’s postures show the impact of caste politics and its recognition by ideologies which generally have been condemning the politics in the name of caste. They are using the same card when it has come to the present elections. One only has to say that even the person coming from the low caste dalit can adopt ideology which is against the interest of that caste. Just opposite to that even individual from upper caste can also work for the goals of annihilation of the caste and social justice. Many of the supporters of Ambedkar were from upper castes. Modi’s flaunting his caste in UP and Bihar is under the pressure of electoral compulsions, while his politics as exhibited in Gujarat and the ideology of RSS, his parent organization, has nothing whatsoever aimed at achieving social justice in any sense of the word.

While he is tom toming about his caste, what has been the condition of Dalits and Adivasis in Gujarat during the last decade or so? Most of the policies implemented by him are totally committed to the interest of the Corporate. The schemes initiated by Central Government, which aim at the benefit of this section of society, have been put on the backburner in Gujarat. Modi, in violation of Planning Commission's directives, had not held a single meeting for the Sub-Plans for SCs and STs that seek proportionate spending for the welfare of the two communities. In Gujarat 27,900 posts for SC/STs were vacant and they could not be filled because of a prevalence of the reservation policy in this state according to which it is compulsory that a vacancy in a district be filled locally only. For example in the city and district of Ahmadabad, from where Narendra Modi has been elected to Assembly, as many as 3,125 SC students have not been given their SC scholarship till day. Independent surveys show that untouchability and denial of entry to dalits in temples was widespread in 1,600 villages of Gujarat. 

Dalits from different parts of the city came together on together on 13^th April 2014 and spoke against the "much-touted development model of the Gujarat government." (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/lok-sabha-elections-2014/news/Modis-development-model-ignores-dalit-rights-Dalits/articleshow/33785414.cms) They pointed out that the Gujarat government had failed to provide a proper model for transformation of dalit lives.

As per their memorandum drafted by the agitating dalits "Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been propagating a lopsided development model which largely ignores dalit rights. The government has given land to industries instead of dalits who deserve it more… we have demanded land for dalits, tribals and OBCs under the Land Sealing Act. We have also sought for an official ban on manual scavenging and an end to the policy of giving jobs on contract," It is interesting to note that Modi has been defending the manual scavenging work as a spiritual experience for the Valmikis in his book Karmayoga. This book seems to have been withdrawn after the ciriticsm was aired by many activists.  One also notes that in Gujarat the conviction rate in atrocity cases is just 4%. Though there is a provision for special courts in every district, the government has not set up such courts that would help expedite disposal of the cases.

Additionally in tune with his spreading of falsehoods on regular basis, Modi went on to say that Congress Government has ignored Babsaheb, and it was BJP Government which gave him Bharat Ratna. One knows the audience is not very critical in public meetings and so there is no protest when such blatant lies are dished out. This lie of his not much attracted the media attention. We know that the first BJP Government was formed in Center for 13 days in 1996. Dr. Ambedkar was conferred posthumous Bharat Ratna in 1990 by V P Singh Government. It was during V.P. Singh’s tenure that the portrait of Babasaheb was also unveiled in the Parliament. It was this Government which implemented Mandal Commission and also honored Dr. Ambedkar. As such BJP, Modi’s party has never been comfortable with the values which Ambedkar stands for. The values of Indian Constitution, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity the core values of Indian Nationalism. Modi recently said that he was born as Hindu and he is a nationalist so he stands for Hindu nationalism. Ambedkar was the staunchest critique of Hindu nationalism. Right from the beginning of its formation RSS stood for upholding Manusmriti and was opposed to even the efforts which went to bring in Indian Constitution.

As per the issues related to social justice, dalits human rights the major focus of human rights activists has been critical of Gandhi and Congress, which has lots of merit. But at the same time the politics which is totally opposed to the values of Dr. Ambedkar is the politics of Hindu nationalism. This is the real opponent of social justice, and it has not much been taken up for critique by dalit activists-intellectuals. And that is the politics of Hindu nationalism, the politics of RSS to which Modi belongs. The very measures for affirmative action, the implementation of Mandal Commission and the like were opposed either directly or subtly by RSS-BJP-Modi politics. Demands of electoral politics makes strange demands, one starts making public postures and makes statements which are polar opposite to their core ideology and manifest actions. That’s ‘Ambedkar-worshipping’ Modi for you! 

Read More